Ireland's Eye

No registered freehold parcel touches this townland in the file of Tailte Éireann.

• G3HA - High Amenity (Conservation, amenity or buffer space, corridor/belt, landscape)
  The Fingal Development Plan 2023 – 2029, Fingal · 0 parcels The zoning objective in the plan

Source: Tailte Éireann and the Department of Housing (MyPlan), national zoning, CC BY 4.0.

No planning application touches the townland of Ireland's Eye in the national file, which goes back to 2010.

Source: National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Applicants are not shown.

Designated sites

• Special Area of Conservation: Ireland's Eye SAC 002193
• Special Area of Conservation: Rockabill to Dalkey Island SAC 003000
• Special Protection Area: Ireland's Eye SPA 004117
• Proposed Natural Heritage Area: Ireland's Eye 000203

Recorded monuments

• DU015-016 Martello tower
  Description

  Irelands Eye Martello Tower No. 3 (Kerrigan 1995, 174). According to Kerrigan (1995, 168) construction of the Dublin area Martello Towers and their batteries commenced in 1804 under the supervision of Colonel Benjamin Fisher of the Royal Engineers and by December 1805 all towers were armed and complete. Kerrigan (ibid., 174) recorded that; 'Twelve towers were constructed north of Dublin: each tower mounted one 24-pounder, apart from the tower on Ireland's Eye with two 24-pounders. No batteries were constructed with these towers'. This Martello tower is built on a rock outcrop at the NW end of the island. It was built c. 1804 as a 'Two Gun Tower' to command the anchorage and the approaches to Howth and was the largest example in north county Dublin (Bolton et al. 2012, 154). It has a basal plinth. A raised doorway on S side has dressed limestone jambs and is defended by a machicolation. There are small opes on the E and W sides. It is a well-preserved example and is the only site to retain all of its original 1805 Board of Ordnance boundary stones (ibid). See attached plans of Irelands Eye Martello Tower No. 3 courtesy of the Irish Military Archives - Archival Reference Code: IE/MA/MPD/ad134122-008 & IE/MA/MPD/ad134122-006 See attached photograph of Martello Tower on Ireland Eye cc-by-sa/2.0 - © sarah gallagher - geograph.org.uk/p/918483 Photo © Caroline Flatt (cc-by-sa/2.0) See attached Taylor's 1816 Map showing the location of the Martello Tower. Taylor, J. 1816 Taylor's map of the environs of Dublin: extending 10 to 14 miles from the castle, by actual survey, on a scale of 2 inches to one mile. Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Updated by: Christine Baker Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 24 January 2023

• DU015-133 Promontory fort - coastal
  Description

  Possible promontory fort described by Casey (2003, 13) as follows; ‘An early 19th century Martello tower [DU015-016----] was built on the rocky north-western point of Ireland’s Eye. The headland, irregular in plan, slopes steeply down to the point and at a point some 30m inland is a curving natural escarpment of rock outcrop with level berm and gentle rise visible immediately to the west, suggesting the presence of a fosse and wall or bank. This was visible from the air and the site has not yet been visited on the ground. Several vague lines running across the headland closer to the tower may indicate further defences. Not enough remains visible above ground to ascertain the nature of these features. Besides the tower, the ruins of a church, dedicated to the followers of St. Nessan stand in the interior of the island. The island is covered with a dense growth of fern and bracken.’

• DU015-150 Ritual site - holy well
  Description

  In 1757 Dr. Rutty tested the water from the spring of 'St. Nessan’s on Ireland’s eye' (Rutty 1757, Table 1 EE). This spring is marked on the 1863 ed. OSi 25-inch map. Rutty, J. 1757 The Mineral Waters of Ireland. Dublin. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 24 April 2023

• DU016-001001 Church
  Description

  Situated on relatively low land above the beach on the south side of the island, this pre-Norman church was dedicated to St Nessan who is associated with a 7th century illuminated manuscript known as the Garland of Howth. In 1235 the church of St Nessan was moved from Ireland's Eye to Howth (Baker 2010, 106). It stands to gable height and is built of coursed limestone blocks with small packing stones and large squared blocks used as quoins. It was heavily restored in the 19th century. The present building has a nave and a chancel which is inset and aligned ENE-WSW. It is entered in the W through a semi-circular arched doorway. The arch springs from roughly-squared imposts. The nave is oblong in plan (int. dims. L 8.4m, Wth 4.5m, wall T 0.8m) and is lit by two narrow slit opes in the N and S walls that have widely splayed embrasures. The chancel is tied into the nave and has a vaulted roof from which rises a round turret. In drawings by Petrie c. 1828 and Wakeman c. 1843 a large portion of this turret is still in situ (Cochrane 1893, 396-403). There are three windows in the N, S and E walls of the chancel, the former are plain rectangular opes with widely splayed embrasures, the latter is a tall, round-headed window. Surrounded with significant overgrowth, vegetation internally and on the top of the walls. Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Updated by: Christine Baker Date of upload: 29 January 2015

• DU016-001002 Burial
  Description

  There is little evidence today for a cemetery surrounding the church. Impossible to determine due to waist height overgrowth that surrounds the church. However, in 1868 stone coffins were discovered here (Cochrane 1893, 402; Wakeman 1892, 104; Cochrane 1896, 1, 10, 14). Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Updated by: Christine Baker Date of upload: 29 January 2015

Architectural heritage

• Ireland's Eye Martello Tower, martello tower, 1800–1810 · National interest
  Description

  Martello tower, c.1805, on a circular plan with tapered profile.

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. Buildings: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Works at or in relation to a recorded monument need two months' written notice to the National Monuments Service (National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, section 12).

Radon

About 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

Susceptibility high, moderately high, moderately low, low, low (inferred), on the 1:50,000 map.

Terrain model

No LiDAR survey of the Office of Public Works covers the centre of the townland of Ireland's Eye.

Flooding

The flood maps of the Office of Public Works: floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency; Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland; both CC BY 4.0. LiDAR: contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & the Office of Public Works) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

No address of the register names Ireland's Eye with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Dublin.

Name

Ireland's Eye · Inis Mac Neasáin

Area

231,189 m² (23.12 ha, 57.13 acres)

Civil parish

Howth, and its townlands

Barony

Coolock

Electoral division

Howth, the unit of the census

Census 2022

Howth electoral division: 8,399 people in 3,126 households; 85% of households own their home; 13% of homes were built since 2001; 7% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 2% were holiday homes.

Placenames

Ireland's Eye on logainm.ie, the Placenames Database of Ireland

Townlands, civil parishes, baronies and electoral divisions, National Statutory Boundaries, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. Census 2022, Small Area Population Statistics by electoral division, Central Statistics Office, CC BY 4.0. A townland is the smallest land division of Ireland, and the unit of a rural address; old registers such as the 1901 and 1911 censuses file it under its civil parish and barony.